Chinese lorry driver survives 600ft fall

A Chinese man has survived a 600ft cliff fall in a lorry that he was driving.

Zheng Yongping's vehicle plummeted down a steep slope at a quarry in Jiangxi Province and was torn in half after striking an iron ore conveyor on the way down.

"I can clearly remember going over the edge and my first thought was to jump out of the cab," he recalled. "But the handle broke off in my hand so I just held on to the steering wheel and pushed my feet on the floor as hard as I could and prayed for luck.

"I was trapped in the cab, and I wanted to call my wife, but I couldn't find my mobile phone. I felt so weak, but then I saw people coming."

Local police confessed that they did not expect to find anyone alive in the wreckage and the hospital Yongping was admitted to called his survival "a pure miracle".

Yongping is now in a stable condition at the Wannian County People's Hospital.